


Land of Babysitters and Chats

by Janey_Cakes413



Series: Land of Babysitters and Chats [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Dirk is a dad, F/M, Fingerpainting, Jane is a Momma, John and Dave are like 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 09:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6605947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janey_Cakes413/pseuds/Janey_Cakes413
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Jane needs a babysitter and who else is there besides the guy who lives across the hall from her in the apartment building. He's nice enough and his son seems to have taken a shine to her's. What could go wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Land of Babysitters and Chats

Jane felt terrible. Not in the sense of the sick way, in the way that she had promised John that this would be their day. Here she was about to break the promise to her young son about to start school the next fall.

Janet Crocker was a single mother. She had gotten out of a marriage while her son was still young, but he still kept his father's name. Sometimes it was difficult, but other times it was just fine. Often she would find herself quite happy with it just being her and her little bug, as she called her son. She was an average woman. Average sized with dark hair and bright blue eyes behind round metal rimmed glasses. She worked as a nurse at the nearby hospital and seemed quite happy with her life. Until lately.

Jane had begun to feel lonely in her life. Mostly it was her and a newly turned five year old. Don't get her wrong, John was the best thing in her life, but she didn't really have any adult contact besides work and quite often she thought her son behaved better than some of the people she worked with. 

When she thought all hope was lost the man across the hall knocked on her door. Jane had just given John his bath so it was needless to say she was absolutely soaked to the bone. She had been able to towel off John and get him in his ghost buster pajamas when the knock sounded through the apartment. 

Answering the door Jane was wearing a towel, but how funny it must have looked with her slacks and blouse under it. When the door was opened there was her blonde haired neighbor standing with his ridiculous shades on his face with one eyebrow quirked higher than the other. "Bathtime right? Little guys just don't understand the water is for them and not for you." He lowered his hand and Jane looked down to see a tuft of equally blonde hair hiding behind the much taller man's legs.

"It seems you know my pain all too well, sometimes I believe he's trying to drown me so he won't have to take anymore baths." She smiled and gave the smallest hint of her larger front teeth. "Is there something I can help you with, or did you just come to discuss children ablutions with me?" She gave him a sly smile as she stood there.

"As it happens no, I actually came here because I wanted to beg you to please not call the feds on me for opening your mail. It seems out new postal carrier put your mail in with mine and I don't usually look before opening." He handed her a almost perfect looking envelope. The only sign it had been opened with a neat and perfect cut across the top.

She looked at the address and smiled at him. She was wondering why it hadn't shown up. "Thank you for being honest an telling me about this, you're more chivalrous than most men. Like a knight." She smiled.

"Nah, I'm like a prince silently gathering people's loot. Little man is the knight he told me to take it to you right away." Oh course he was joking, but calling him a knight caused the boy to step out a bit and look up at Jane.

The woman couldn't help but smile and kneel next to the boy. "Thank you sir knight. And for your courageous act against the Prince," she leaned in and kisses his temple, "I thank you from the bottom of my heart." She smiled and stood. "And thank you very much Mr...." She extended it out as if asking his name.

"Dirk, Dirk Strider."

She smiled. "Jane Crocker."

The two became close over the next couple of days passing in the hall and chatting at the mailboxes. It seemed things were getting a bit better and Jane thought it was nice to talk to an adult about issues that seemed trivial, but couldn't really be discussed with a child.

Now back to why Jane felt terrible, yes, you see it was a once a month thing. She would take John to the arcade. The two would play around and gather tickets before turning them all on for the prizes. It was always on the second Saturday in the month. Except this Saturday it wouldn't happen.

Jane had gotten a call the previous night right before dinner. It was the head nurse asking if she could come in and help cover a shift for a nurse who had been ordered to strict bedrest and immediate maternity leave. Of course she could have left them short handed, but she couldn't do that. They could really need her. So of course she agreed to it. It wasn't until she hung up that she heard the sniffles and cries from John's room.

Walking in she frowned seeing him rubbing his eyes and sitting on his bed crying his eyes out. She kneeled in front of him and hugged him. He told her that she wouldn't be able to take him to the arcade and she held him close knowing that he couldn't understand that she needed to work this shift as a favor. Eventually she promised that she would take him on Sunday instead. He stopped crying a few minutes later and they both went to eat their dinner. Next came another problem.

It turns out that since her babysitter knew that Jane always took the second Saturday off she didn't think Jane would ever need her for the day, so she made plans with her own mother who was a stickler for keeping her word. So Jane was without a sitter. It wasn't until a knock came down on her door as she sat on the couch well after John was asleep with a glass of wine in hand. She sat it down and answered the door knowing it was Dirk.

"What are you doing up so late?" She asked stepping into the hall quietly shutting the door behind her. 

Dirk noticed the look on her face and sighed. "I came over to ask for a cup of sugar and then use a wicked pick up line before asking you out to dinner sometime, but it seems like you got a lot on your mind. Wanna share?" He asked and she opened the door again letting him inside. She poured him a glass of the wine and sipped at hers. 

Telling him about the whe situation had him shaking his head. "Nope, you're gonna stop worrying because Di-Stri has got it taken care of. I'll make sure that the kid has a great day at my place and you can stop worrying about that little problem. Then y'all can go to the arcade on Sunday."

She hugged him around the neck and thanked him many times. She heard a stirring in the other room and a sleepy eyed John walked out and looked at them Jane smiled and got up to pick up John shushing him as he told her about monsters and ghosts in his room.

Dirk got up. "I should get back to my apartment." He moved to the door and Jane smiled at him.

"Come through for me and I'll go on that date with you, Mr. Strider." She told him letting him leave as she took John back to his room and read him a story.

The next morning Jane woke up to her alarm clock buzzing. Yawning she got up and showered before making a quick breakfast. At half past 6 she heard a knock at the door. Smiling she knew it was Dirk. Opening it she let the man in. On his hip was a still sleeping Dave. Without further ado she took the young boy from his father and carried him into her room and tucked him into the big bed.

When she went back out Dirk was leaning against the counter looking over the emergency contacts. "Okay, so you have those. And my number is on there too." Jane explained any rules she had and soon was heading out of the door. The day was uneventful and to be honest, they could have afforded to be short staffed. Nonetheless Jane made her way home that day no worse for wear and still bustling with energy.

When she got to their flood there was a sign on the door. 'We're at Dirk's.' She took the sign down and went across the hall. She heard laughing behind the door and opened it to see Dave and John running around covered in paint. An equally covered in paint Dirk was cleaning up some metal paneling covered in red, blue, and purple handprints. 

He hears the door and looked up to Jane before smiling sheepishly. "Fingerprinting is a messy task."

Jane couldn't help but laugh at him as she plucked John off the ground as he ran past her. He laughed as she kissed his temple and tickled him. 

"Bathtime." She told all of them the three boys groaning in unison.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy I may or may not make a series, but I really hope you like it. If you would like you can follow me on Instagram @ JaneyCakes413. Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you think I should try to make a little series out of this, go ahead and leave a comment, or of you have some constructive criticism go ahead and let me know what you think.


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